According to Adrian Belew, there was one specific thing that made King Crimson stand out from the other progressive rock and jazz fusion bands of the era.
Being a unique musician and performer, Belew got into the newly formed band led by King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. However, despite their plans to be called Discipline instead, the band, now also featuring Bill Bruford on drums and Tony Levin on bass, adopted the King Crimson name. This quartet would end up recording three albums, the first one being 1981’s “Discipline.”
Belew, who was a guitarist and singer in this new lineup, recently appeared in an interview with Rick Beato, where he reflected on this lineup and what made it stand out. While discussing the differences between progressive rock and jazz fusion, he said that the band “never played anything in unison” and that everything was planned in advance. Belew offered (transcript via Ultimate Guitar):
“Like, in a jazz [fusion] band, they’ll play lines in unison. We never did that. We started right in, everybody’s doing something completely different from each other. And I think that’s a big difference, musically, why that music has what it has.”
And we get what Belew was saying here. You can especially notice this on the title track of the “Discipline” album. He continued:
“Even Frank Zappa — love him so much — would have parts where people were playing the same lines together, but we weren’t allowed to do that in King Crimson… It was a conscious thing. I personally really enjoyed that, because I thought it really did separate us. You never would go, ‘Oh, we’ve heard that in every other band.'”
And on top of that, Adrian also says that overdubbing in the studio wasn’t something they preferred to do. And, as you might have guessed it, it’s Robert Fripp’s idea. He added:
“That was another thing that we that it’s another thing Robert wanted. We write the songs to be a four-piece, we record them that way. And we go and play them live that way.”
“Another thing we always [did] was, we would write to get the arrangements and start rehearsing. Then we’d go out and play a short little tour before we finished the songs. We’d go test-drive this material, we’d go back, finish it, and then we’d finally record. That’s worked almost through my whole tenure [in King Crimson].”
During the same interview, Belew also reflected on another one of Fripp’s strict preferences of the era. Since he practically formed a new band, the guitarist insisted that they’ll only play new material. This, of course, meant that they had pretty short setlists. And, on one of their live shows, they ended up causing problems with the crowd.
“Another thing we always [did] was, we would write to get the arrangements and start rehearsing,” he recalled. “Then we’d go out and play a short little tour before we finished the songs. We’d go test-drive this material, we’d go back, finish it, and then we’d finally record. That’s worked almost through my whole tenure [in King Crimson].”
“That was when he allowed us to play ‘Red’ and ‘Larks’ Tongues [in Aspic]’. And that helped because we only had one record worth of material. That’s why we kinda hurried up to get the second record going too [laughs].'”
In March this year, Belew joined forces with guitar legend Steve Vai, bass and Chapman stick virtuoso Tony Levin, and Tool drummer Danny Carey for a new band called Beat. Together, this quartet got a blessing from Robert Fripp himself to perform the 1980s King Crimson material. Fripp shared on his social media channels:
“This is the project that Adrian Belew called me about last Autumn. A project which I support and fully encourage, and discussed with Steve Vai recently at McCabes in Santa Monica (3march2024). Even, I suggested the name.”
Initially, they announced a one-off performance on September 17 in San Diego, California. But not long after this, they came out with a whole bunch of live dates. You can check the timeline below:
- 9/12 San Jose, CA San Jose Civic
- 9/13 Napa, CA Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions at Meritage Resort
- 9/14 Los Angeles, CA The United Theater on Broadway
- 9/15 Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim
- 9/17 San Diego, CA Humphrey’s Concerts
- 9/18 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
- 9/20 Austin, TX The Paramount Theatre
- 9/21 Houston, TX Bayou Music Centre
- 9/22 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre
- 9/24 Atlanta, GA The Eastern
- 9/26 Fort Lauderdale, FL The Parker
- 9/27 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
- 9/28 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
- 9/29 Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall
- 10/01 Charlotte, NC Knight Theater
- 10/02 Durham, NC Carolina Theatre of Durham / Fletcher Hall
- 10/04 Washington, DC Warner Theatre
- 10/05 New York, NY Beacon Theatre
- 10/06 Glenside, PA Keswick Theatre
- 10/08 Richmond, VA Carpenter Theater in Dominion Energy Center
- 10/09 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Center
- 10/11 Boston, MA Shubert Theatre
- 10/12 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
- 10/14 Halifax, NS Rebecca Cohen Auditorium
- 10/15 Moncton, NB Casino New Brunswick
- 10/17 Montreal, QC Theatre Maisonneuve
- 10/18 Toronto, ON Massey Hall
- 10/19 Rochester, NY Kodak Center
- 10/21 Albany, NY The Egg
- 10/22 Greensburg, PA Palace Theatre
- 10/23 Reading, PA Santander Performing Arts Center
- 10/25 Cleveland, OH Agora Theatre
- 10/26 Cincinnati, OH Taft Theatre
- 10/27 Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre
- 10/28 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
- 10/30 Indianapolis, IN Murat Theatre
- 11/01 Chicago, IL Copernicus Center
- 11/02 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theatre
- 11/03 Madison, WI Orpheum Theater
- 11/04 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre
- 11/06 Denver, CO Paramount Theatre
- 11/08 Las Vegas, NV The Theater at Virgin Hotels
Photo: Mogwai73 (Adrian Belew, live in Lisbon, 2017)
